Agenda item

Council is RECOMMENDED to endorse the proposed modified Standing Orders for the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly and Executive Board.

Council ENDORSED the proposed modified Standing Orders for the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly and Executive Board, as set out in the appendices to the report.

Councillor Francis Burkitt, Portfolio Holder for the Greater Cambridge City Deal, presented a report which set out proposed changes to the Standing Orders for the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly and Executive Board.  He proposed that the Council endorsed the amendments to Standing Orders, as set out in the report, which sought to improve the way in which public questions were considered and received at meetings of the Assembly and Board.  He emphasised that the changes were being proposed in response to an open letter by a range of individuals from organisations who regularly submitted questions to the Assembly and Board and who had become increasingly dissatisfied with the answers they were being provided with.  The changes to Standing Orders would mean that more notice would need to be given to the Assembly and Board of the content of the question, rather than the current arrangement of being able to provide only 24 hours notice, in order that officers and Members had sufficient time to provide a more comprehensive response to the issues raised.

Councillor Kevin Cuffley seconded the proposal.

Councillor Sebastian Kindersley was concerned that questions were being limited to 300 words as part of the proposed changes.  He felt that this was patronising and stifled the public in being able to put forward meaningful questions to the Assembly and Board.  He proposed an amendment that this element of the changes be removed.

Councillor Bridget Smith, Leader of the Opposition, seconded the amendment.

Councillor Burkitt did not agree with the suggestion that a word limit was patronising or stifling, making the point that this proposal came directly from those individuals who had signed the open letter and who regularly asked questions at the Assembly and Board.  They were Cambridge Past, Present and Future, the Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations, Cambridge Cycling Campaign, Smarter Cambridge Transport, Coton Parish Council and Madingley Parish Council.  He referred to the pages of documentation often submitted as part of questions where the actual question had been difficult to identify and said that there was a differential between a question and supporting material.  A word limit on the question would add clarity around a specific question, with supporting material still able to be submitted.

Councillor Bridget Smith, as a Member of the Joint Assembly, said that she had never experienced any problems in understanding questions from members of the public and questioned where the provision for supporting materials was set out in the proposed changes to Standing Orders.  Councillor Anna Bradnam echoed these sentiments and agreed that supplementary documents should be able to be supplied in support of any questions.

Councillor Peter Topping, Leader of the Council, made the point that the proposed changes were seeking the facilitation of clarity and succinctness and therefore felt that a word limit seemed like a useful, reasonable, practical and sensible thing to introduce.  Councillor Ray Manning supported the inclusion of a word limit.

Anna Bradnam proposed an amendment to retain the existing form of words regarding the word limit, but for Standing Orders to state that supporting information may be submitted without limit in support of questions.

Councillor Douglas de Lacey seconded this amendment.

Councillors Sebastian Kindersley and Bridget Smith, as mover and seconder of the original amendment, accepted this amendment which became the substantive amendment. 

Voting on the substantive amendment, with 20 votes in favour, 26 votes against and 1 abstention, the amendment was lost.

Enough Members as prescribed by Council’s Standing Orders requested a recorded vote.  Votes were therefore cast as follows:

In favour

Councillors Val Barrett, Henry Batchelor, John Batchelor, Anna Bradnam, Nigel Cathcart, Doug Cattermole, Christopher Cross, Neil Davies, Jose Hales, Philippa Hart, Tumi Hawkins, Peter Johnson, Sebastian Kindersley, Douglas de Lacey, Janet Lockwood, Bridget Smith, Hazel Smith, Ingrid Tregoing, Aidan Van de Weyer and John Williams.

Against

Councillors David Bard, Francis Burkitt, Tom Bygott, Grenville Chamberlain, Graham Cone, Pippa Corney, Kevin Cuffley, Simon Edwards, Sue Ellington, Andrew Fraser, Roger Hall, Mark Howell, Caroline Hunt, Ray Manning, Mick Martin, Raymond Matthews, David McCraith, Charles Nightingale, Alex Riley, Tim Scott, Ben Shelton, Peter Topping, Richard Turner, Robert Turner, Bunty Waters and Nick Wright.

Abstention

Councillor Lynda Harford.

Councillor Bridget Smith reflected on paragraph 6 of the report which stated that responses were prepared by officers in order to advise Joint Assembly and Executive Board Members on responding to questions at the meeting.  She disagreed that this was the practice for the Joint Assembly and said that questions were always dealt with by officers.

With 30 votes in favour, 12 votes against, 4 abstentions and 1 not voting, Council ENDORSED the proposed modified Standing Orders for the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly and Executive Board, as set out in the appendices to the report.

Enough Members as prescribed by Council’s Standing Orders requested a recorded vote.  Votes were therefore cast as follows:

In favour

Councillors David Bard, Val Barrett, Francis Burkitt, Tom Bygott, Grenville Chamberlain, Graham Cone, Pippa Corney, Kevin Cuffley, Neil Davies, Simon Edwards, Sue Ellington, Andrew Fraser, Roger Hall, Lynda Harford, Mark Howell, Caroline Hunt, Douglas de Lacey, Ray Manning, Mick Martin, Raymond Matthews, David McCraith, Charles Nightingale, Alex Riley, Tim Scott, Ben Shelton, Peter Topping, Richard Turner, Robert Turner, Bunty Waters and Nick Wright.

Against

Councillors Henry Batchelor, John Batchelor, Doug Cattermole, Jose Hales, Philippa Hart, Tumi Hawkins, Peter Johnson, Sebastian Kindersley, Bridget Smith, Hazel Smith, Aidan Van de Weyer and John Williams.

Abstention

Councillors Anna Bradnam, Nigel Cathcart, Janet Lockwood and Ingrid Tregoing.

Not Voting

Councillor Christopher Cross.